Abstract We present further observations of thermospheric winds and temperatures, derived from observations of the λ630 nm oxygen auroral/airglow emission (from ∼240 km altitude), obtained with a Fabry-Perot spectrometer (FPS) at Mawson station, Antarctica (L = 9). We report further instances of large upward zenith winds, with velocities up to ∼80ms−1, often associated with increases in temperature of up to 200 K. These upward winds are mostly seen around 21 Z, which is when Mawson station passes under the poleward edge of the (discrete) auroral oval during intervals of low to moderate geomagnetic activity, and are yet further examples of the type of event presented in an earlier paper (Innis et al., 1996). We also find intervals, up to several hours in length, when the temperatures measured South and East of the station can be several hundred degrees higher than those measured in the North and West directions, which we ascribe to the expansion of the hot polar cap into the South and East viewing directions. We have observed examples of seemingly anomalous wind measurements in the South and East directions during these times, which appear to be related to the presence of an upward wind in the observing volume of the FPS. Our observations suggest, however, that the upward wind would cause only a small perturbation (relative to the horizontal component) of the high-latitude thermospheric neutral wind field. The size of the zenith wind events (up to ∼120 m s−1) seen in our observations at Mawson are comparable with the amplitude of oscillations seen in gravity waves propagating at ∼300 km altitude over the polar cap from the nightside to the dayside, detected by Johnson et al. (1995) from Dynamics Explorer 2 observations. This similarity and the fact that we see the upward winds at the night-time auroral oval/polar cap boundary suggest that the origin of the upward winds may be intrinsically linked to the processes that generate these gravity waves.